New York Times: Four Lessons from the Election
The presidential election, which has been touted as the “most important election of the year” by international public opinion, is left for the second round, with neither Kılıçdaroğlu nor Erdogan getting enough votes, while foreign media organizations’ analysis and commentary are growing.
The headline of the news, signed by Ben Hubbard, Turkey correspondent for the New York Times, one of the main US media outlets, was “Four lessons to be learned from the exciting presidential elections in Turkey”. In the news, “Erdogan is going to the first runoff of the presidential elections for both himself and his country. The first round showed that the power of Erdogan, who has been ruling the country for a long time, continues.”
In the article, which recalls that the elections were followed by many countries, attention is drawn to four details.
1- FIRST TIME SECOND ROUND
The New York Times reporter claimed that for the first time the presidential election had reached the second round, “Erdogan won the 2014 and 2018 elections by a wide margin. “The fact that he was unable to declare victory in the first round this time clearly shows that he has lost some support.”
2- ERDOGAN ADVANTAGED
In the analysis it was recalled that Erdogan failed to claim victory by a small margin in the first round, and it was stated that it was also a matter of curiosity on which side the votes of the eliminated Sinan Ogan would go.
“Before the elections, Erdogan freely used state resources to boost his chances, increased civil servants’ salaries and concentrated on other government spending,” the report said. It was claimed that these moves also positively affected the AKP votes.
3- THE TURKS HAVE A LOT OF CONFIDENCE
In US media news, it was reported that 88.9 percent of the 64 million registered voters went to the polls. While it was reported that there were long lines at polling places, it was also highlighted that the turnout rate in the 2020 US presidential election was 66.6%.
“Many political scientists do not believe that Türkiye has pure democracy. But the Turks take elections very seriously.”
4- SUCCESSFUL NATIONALISM
In the article written by Hubbard, it was stated that “Turkish voters’ priority is not foreign policy, but Erdogan and his conservative alliance parties were rewarded for making nationalist rhetoric during the election campaign.”
It was claimed that Erdogan’s bringing a warship to Istanbul and his criticism of the US before the elections had an effect during the election campaigns, and it was recalled that he associated the opposition with terrorism.